Hittin' the links: Golf talk

Played in a 2-Person, 4-Ball scramble over the weekend. Pretty fun format as you both get two swings each time. Kind of shows how inconsistent I am - not that I didn't know that already. Didn't get a lot of help from my partner but shot a 64. If I can swing twice, I can pretty much always find a pretty good shot. But I'm not consistent enough to score well in a regular round - usually low 80s.

 
Stopped at the putting green on the way to work this morning. I picked out a hole on a gentle slope and tried a variation of the clock drill: Placed eight coins at spots around the hole 45 degrees apart, 10 feet from the hole (Only 8 numbers on my clock. lol) Then I putted from each position. Gave myself 2 points for a made putt, 0 points if I missed but ended up within a club-length past the hole, and -1 point if I fell short. I ended up with 5 points, including three made putts, one that fell short, and the four misses but within a club-length of the hole. (I didn't jack any beyond the hole by more than a club-length.) I can see I have plenty of room for improvement. But it's a starting point.
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Played nine after work last night. My tee shots sucked, and iron play was spotty. So my scorecard was somewhat shameful. But I was quite please with my putting. Didn't three putt even once. I parred both par three holes after barely hitting the green on each, and leaving a long lag putt. One of my lag putts on one of the par threes wasn't so great, leaving me an 8 footer. And on another hole—a par five with a steep sloping green[SIZE=11pt]—[/SIZE]I blasted past by about 12 feet. But I converted both the 8 footer and the 12 footer to save par on both holes. Now if I could just get every other aspect of my game to click for me ... lol

 
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FINALLY I get to golf tonight. I've been so busy I haven't been out for two weeks. That always means I either golf really well or really bad.

 
Putting question: How do you guys develop touch for lag putts? For short putts I try to practice a specific length putt, say 8 footers, until I have a good feel for how hard I need to hit an 8 footer. Then for 5 footers or 10 footers I simply adjust my 8 foot stroke.

What I'm thinking about doing is spending a few sessions grooving a stroke for a 25 footer. I'd use that 25 footer stroke as the basis for my lag putts, and adjust accordingly for other lengths. (I've really been getting into putting lately. It's a whole game unto itself really. lol)

 
NUance said:
Putting question: How do you guys develop touch for lag putts? For short putts I try to practice a specific length putt, say 8 footers, until I have a good feel for how hard I need to hit an 8 footer. Then for 5 footers or 10 footers I simply adjust my 8 foot stroke.

What I'm thinking about doing is spending a few sessions grooving a stroke for a 25 footer. I'd use that 25 footer stroke as the basis for my lag putts, and adjust accordingly for other lengths. (I've really been getting into putting lately. It's a whole game unto itself really. lol)
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Lag putting is one of the few things my buddies actually say I do well
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How I got there was that I spent a lot of time on the putting green. One of the main ways I did it was I took 4-5 balls and laid them out in a straight line away from the hole maybe 5-7 feet apart from each other. The first one might be 5 feet from the hole. Take another club and lay it behind the hole maybe 2-3 feet away from the hole. Start at the ball closest to the hole. I'm not aiming every shot perfectly. I'm looking for touch. My goal is to have every ball either in the hole or somewhere between the hole and the club laying behind the hole. If the ball touches the club you failed on that ball.

Now, as I'm doing my stroke on each ball, I'm concentrating on keeping my tempo the same and adjusting how far back the putter goes for each shot. I line the ball up just inside my left foot. So, the first putt (5 feet away) the putter might only go back to my big toe on my right foot. the next one might go back to my little toe on my right foot. The next might be just outside my foot....etc.

I find this drill is much better for me than standing 25 feet away and putting 10 balls to one hole. It makes you think about the adjustment in your backstroke for how far you are from the hole.

Tempo is HUGE in putting. Use the same tempo every single time.

 
NUance said:
Putting question: How do you guys develop touch for lag putts? For short putts I try to practice a specific length putt, say 8 footers, until I have a good feel for how hard I need to hit an 8 footer. Then for 5 footers or 10 footers I simply adjust my 8 foot stroke.
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I hate to say it, practice. I actually don't like learning how hard or how big of swing you should do for a certain length putt, as it is going to chance depending on course and/or conditions.

For lag putt practice, I do one of two things. If you have multiple pins on the practice green, I'll drop 4-5 balls and hit each one to a different pin. Collect and repeat. Otherwise, I like to only have one ball. Putt to a flag 25-50 feet away, hole out, rinse and repeat. Go through your pre-putt routine and devote time to each putt. I don't like hitting multiple balls to the same pin. It doesn't replicate on-course scenarios, it just gets you better at that putt which you will never see again.

 
When I practice, one of the "games" I play is taking a number of balls and lining them up on the green. I putt the first to a short distance, 2-3 feet. Aim a little to the right (so as not to hit the first) then putt the second to around a foot past the first. Putt the third a foot past the second, and so on and so forth. Work outward as far as you need, pulling back any of the shorter ones to re-use for farther distances if you don't have enough balls. Then gather up, find a new spot and repeat. It helps me get a fine feel for distance control.

In a pinch, I do the same thing but work outward faster. So start at 2-3 feet, then aim for 5-6, then aim for 8-9 and so on. Or I will do similar but with the actual cut holes on the practice green, trying to find a circuit around the practice green that will test me around those distances.

I played my first full round on Tuesday afternoon and shot an 88. It's not the longest course and pretty fantastic weather conditions but I had forgotten how much of a grind walking 18 holes can be, and I used to walk 36-ish holes everyday during the summer in high school. I played 13 of the first 15 holes really well for me, then my energy faded pretty hard in the last 3. Dropping 5 strokes on 2 holes by playing stupid is killer. Only had two penalties but thats another couple strokes. Add in a few missed scrambling par conversions, or bad shot that lead to that scrambling and I can easily hit 78-79. Just gotta work harder on playing smarter to not waste those strokes and put a complete round together.

Wasn't so worried about hitting all fairways and that only bit me on two holes. Otherwise I was just off the fairway. Need work on the GIR category though. Yikes.

Here is what my card looked like (Hole 19 app):

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I have been tracking scores on 3 apps (Hole 19, Swing by Swing, and Nike) and will run a few more rounds through them before I post my reviews.

 
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icedavis said:
When I practice, one of the "games" I play is taking a number of balls and lining them up on the green. I putt the first to a short distance, 2-3 feet. Aim a little to the right (so as not to hit the first) then putt the second to around a foot past the first. Putt the third a foot past the second, and so on and so forth. Work outward as far as you need, pulling back any of the shorter ones to re-use for farther distances if you don't have enough balls. Then gather up, find a new spot and repeat. It helps me get a fine feel for distance control.
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Yeah, I'd forgotten all about that drill. It's a good one. I used it for chip shots last season, for a month or so. I did it a handful of times for putting last season too. I should get back to it. It's probably as good a drill as there is for developing touch.
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I hit a bucket over lunch. (Actually, I hit a couple of buckets. Ummm, okay. I hit three damn buckets. What of it??! lol) Concentrating mostly on my driver, which is the club I'm struggling the most with right now. I made a couple of tweeks which seemed to aid in consistency. The adjustment with the biggest impact was to shorten by backswing some. That, and slowing down my takeaway, seemed to keep me in the fairway most of the time. And my pretty little draw is back! I just hope I can keep it together for the weekend. Playing in a scramble with some buddies from my high school class.

Also got the first golf blister of teh season. On the outside of my right ring finger. You know the place, or at least you guys who interlock know it.
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I can golf with a dislocated thumb right? It's bruised and swollen and I can't really grip anything right now but I bet golf will be no sweat.
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Hit a bucket of balls over lunch today. Once again I'm concentrating solely on hitting the woods. I seem to have my fairway wood (20 degrees) and 3-wood working pretty well. Sure, I occasionally hit the errant shot but even my bad shots with these clubs aren't too far out of the fairway. But my driver, bleh! Just can't groove a swing with that stick. Funny, but last season I was hitting my driver straighter than my fairway or 3-wood. Might just leave the driver in the bag until I can get it sorted out.

 
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NUance said:
Hit a bucket of balls over lunch today. Once again I'm concentrating solely on hitting the woods. I seem to have my fairway wood (20 degrees) and three wood working pretty well. Sure, I occasionally hit the errant shot but even my bad shots with these clubs aren't too far out of the fairway. But my driver, bleh! Just can't groove a swing with that stick. Funny, but last season I was hitting my driver straighter than my fairway or 3-wood. Might just leave the driver in the bag until I can get it sorted out.
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I played 18 on Monday. I hit the driver pretty well, including a number of big drives down the middle. Of course, the 2 holes where I tried to play safe and hit 3-wood off the tee, I took lazy swings and pulled my tee shot into some trees. Then I hacked around by next shots and ended up making double-bogeys on both of the holes. That's the worst part when I try to "play smart/conservative" and I still screw it up with a bad swing.

 
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ColoradoHusk said:
NUance said:
Hit a bucket of balls over lunch today. Once again I'm concentrating solely on hitting the woods. I seem to have my fairway wood (20 degrees) and three wood working pretty well. Sure, I occasionally hit the errant shot but even my bad shots with these clubs aren't too far out of the fairway. But my driver, bleh! Just can't groove a swing with that stick. Funny, but last season I was hitting my driver straighter than my fairway or 3-wood. Might just leave the driver in the bag until I can get it sorted out.
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I played 18 on Monday. I hit the driver pretty well, including a number of big drives down the middle. Of course, the 2 holes where I tried to play safe and hit 3-wood off the tee, I took lazy swings and pulled my tee shot into some trees. Then I hacked around by next shots and ended up making double-bogeys on both of the holes. That's the worst part when I try to "play smart/conservative" and I still screw it up with a bad swing.
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Been there. Done that.
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There is a green on the course where I play that's got an insane amount of slope. The pin placement this week is about 12 feet from the top of the green, in a portion of the green that slopes severely downward to the point where it's impossible to stop the ball if putting from above or from either side. Sometimes the ball will even roll back when you putt from beneath the hole.

I was experimenting around with this pin placement this morning. I went to a spot above the hole, and about four feet to the side, on the fringe. I putted the ball to the side and upward at a 30 degree angle or so. (Upward, away from the hole.) I hit it about as hard as I'd hit a four foot putt. The ball looped up and began rolling down. It picked up speed after missing the hole, and ended up over forty feet past the hole. The ball rolled nearly 55 feet down from the top fringe after I had barely tapped it. I did this twice, and the second ball ended up in about the same spot. The amount of slope on this green is ridiculous. It's impossible to putt from some pin placements.
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